


Burning down the House

by tradescant (tofty)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-08-31
Updated: 2003-08-31
Packaged: 2017-10-15 09:37:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/159480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tofty/pseuds/tradescant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gashlycrumb Snape spends an afternoon in the library.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burning down the House

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Isolde as part of a drabble challenge.

_Dear Mother,_

 _I am writing from the library.  
_  
Severus reread this sentence and then added _if you would like to know_ to the end of it. He really liked saying that, and liked writing it too. It made you sound like you thought you were doing people a favor by telling them the things that you knew and they didn't. It was practically the most Slytherin thing you could say. He narrowed his eyes at the sentence in some satisfaction and continued.

 _I am writing from the library, if you would like to know. There's almost no one in here, just a bunch of horrible Gryffindors trying to buy Sea Mokes from the back of a comic. It's Saturday and the weather's nice and mostly people are outside. I was in the common room doing my work and Lucius Malfoy said I was a foul child and leaving grease spots on the backs of the chairs. He is such a bully to all the first years but I don't care because I think my hair looks very nice slicked back. I think you might like it, mother, it is tidy. And then I went back to the dorm and there was a pillow fight, there were feathers everywhere and I couldn't do my revision so I just made sure all the potions I've made since we got back from Christmas were safe and I left again. There are 14 potions, mother, and I think they are very good value. I like the kit alot, thank you again, it is the best Christmas present ever._

 _I wrote the saddest poem in the world yesterday, it almost made me cry. No one else thought it was as sad as I did though, because no one here likes poetry so much. I read it out loud in the common room last night but no one clapped the way you always do. Here it is, it took hours and hours to write, and I put capital letters at the beginning of every line just as you told me to._

 _The Hogwarts Express  
Made quite a big mess  
When a misused Muggle artefact  
Got abandoned on the track._

 _The train came off the rails  
And all you could hear was the wails  
Of the students as they cried  
And broke their necks and died._

 _The parents came to the train  
To find their children, and it brought them pain  
To see that their task was pointless  
Because the children were mixed together in that wrecked Hogwarts Express._

 _One of those Gryffindors, he is one of the Blacks, mother, just Incendioed the scroll with my Transfiguration prep on. It was excellent as well, about how metamorphic potions are better than switching spells because switching spells can go all wrong because of entropy. Outside things can make spells fall apart but a good potion works no matter what, unless there's another potion to make it fail. That's what it was about, anyway, I will have to do it over again now, so I will not write too much more to you today, I'm sorry. I got back at Black though, I spelled his ink to leak all over the inside of his bag. I saw it soaking through when they left the library just now._

 _Mother, I wish it were the end of the year already. I wish we could go to Gran's on holiday, if you would like to know._

 _Your friend and also son,_

 _Severus Snape_

He signed his name with an extra-large S, which he'd begun doing when he'd got back to school, rolled it up, and was just tying it when the library door banged open. Madam Pince, who'd been nowhere in sight when Severus's scroll had been burning away, was still in the stacks and thus not there to glare disapprovingly at Lupin as he dashed back into the library and skidded to a breathless stop in front of Severus.

"Sni--I mean, Snape, I'm sorry about your prep. Sirius was only angry over a letter he got from home today. Here's mine. You can copy it if you want." He held out a scroll, and Severus sneered first at it, and then at the boy holding it.

"I'm not going to take that. It's probably jinxed, or something."

"No, honestly, it isn't. Only, I...I mean, I told the others I was coming back for a book I forgot. I didn't think it was fair for you to have to do it all over, that's all." He thrust the scroll under Severus's nose. "Here, please take it, and you can give it back to me before class tomorrow. Meet me in front of the Charms classroom after breakfast and give it back then."

Severus peered more closely at Lupin's face. He really did seem sincere, in a stupid Gryffindor sort of way. He reached out and pulled the scroll from Lupin's hand, and said, as grudgingly as he could possibly manage, "...yeah, OK. Thanks, Lupin."

Lupin's narrow, solemn face lit up. "See you tomorrow, then, Snape." He dashed off as quickly as he came, slamming the library door behind him, still with no point loss, Madam Pince still not about.

Madam Pince, not at her desk. Severus thought for a moment, then dropped the scroll into the metal waste bin where the remains of his transfiguration paper still smouldered a little. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the bin.

" _Incendio_ ," he whispered, and waited for the flash of heat and light, and turned back to the table. He pulled a fresh scroll from his bag and began to rewrite his Transfiguration prep.


End file.
